29Views
There is a quantification age we are in. We are recording our footprints, our sleep patterns and our pulse rates and gorging enormous chunks of intimate biometric information into the cloud, on a minute-by-minute basis. Along with millions of Atlanta professionals, it is as simple as wearing shoes to strap on an Apple Watch, Garmin, or Fitbit. We perceive these gadgets as health and convenience devices.
However, when that information is used against you during a criminal investigation?
Due to the current trends in technology, law enforcement and prosecutors have been changing their strategies. In the high-stakes DUI prosecution, the state is always ready to find other methods of establishing impairment other than the normal breathalyzer test. The new frontier is not in the highway, it is on your wrist.
In case you wear a smartwatch and are charged with DUI, you must know about the new threat of digital biometric evidence. It is one of the advanced legal battlefields where the conventional defense can not do the trick. You require the intellectual faculties of an advanced Atlanta DUI Attorney that is conversant with digital forensics just like they are with the traffic law.
The “Digital Witness” Theory
The hypothesis that is under the test of aggressive prosecutors throughout the country is straightforward: your body does not lie, and your smartwatch documents its facts all the time.
In a typical stop of a DUI an officer will give subjective evidence: the driver was nervous, could feel a pulse in their neck, and unsteady. Defense attorneys usually pounce on this as opinion.
But what would you say, the prosecutor might be able to support that opinion using hard data on your own device? They might even subpoena your Apple Health/Fitbit information to demonstrate:
Unexpected Heart Rate Increase: A resting heart rate of 65 bpm that abruptly spikes to 140bpm upon reaching the traffic stop may be considered a true indicator of drug use (especially stimulant drugs such as cocaine or Adderall) or hyper awareness of guilt.
Unstable Movement: Accelerator records that indicate the wild and jerky arm movements in the few minutes before the stop may be employed to indicate that the driver is experiencing impaired motor control on the road.
Sleep Deprivation: Statistics indicating that you have not slept in 36 hours may be utilized to develop a less unsafe driver case on the basis of crippling fatigue, despite having a low level of alcohol.
Then, when your watch is no longer a fitness tracker, but a tool that has been witnessing the prosecution, delivering biometric corroboration to the officer, it becomes a witness to his or her words.
The Fight of the Admissibility and Privacy.
This is not settled law. It is a grey area of law that is being battled in courts.
The work of your DUI Attorney Atlanta specialist is to vigorously oppose any effort to bring this data forward. The military doctrine is based on a number of pillars:
Consistency of Science: It is an Apple Watch, not medical instrument and thus has not been tested in a state crime lab to determine its accuracy. Its readings may not be accurate because of a loose band, sweat or software errors. An experienced lawyer will claim that such evidence does not pass the high standards of evidentiary requirements of scientific evidence in a criminal trial.
The Context is Everything: When the heart rate is high, it is not an indicator of being intoxicated. Having a police car pull one over and turn on its lights is a normal human reaction. Fear, Anxiety and an adrenaline dump appear to be significantly similar to some forms of drug impairment in raw data. The defense has to give the innocent setting that the raw figures do not take into account.
Fourth Amendment Privacy: Is it within the rights of police to confiscate this highly personal information without a very precise warrant? The constitutional basis of fighting the subpoena is of paramount importance to ensure that the data does not go to court at all.
Never take a 20 th -century battle with a 21 st -century strategy.
The times when a DUI case was only based on a breathalyser slip are dying out. Text messages, GPS history and now biometric data are under scrutiny by the prosecutors to create cases that cannot be refuted.
You can never trust a lawyer who is not comfortable with technology when being used against on your personal technology. You require a team of defense that will be able to break down digital evidence, dispute its authenticity, and safeguard your privacy. You should call a modern Atlanta DUI Lawyer as soon as you have a DUI charge in the metro area to be on top of the curve.
